1. Field of Invention
This invention relates generally to processing protein products and, more particularly, to poultry conveying equipment.
2. Background Art
It is a common in the poultry processing industry to transport poultry carcasses, such as for example chicken carcasses, on an apparatus known as a shackle conveyor which typically involves an endless conveyor chain at an elevated height from which are suspended a plurality of shackles aligned and evenly spaced apart. The shackles typically are formed from a metal rod and have a pair of U-shaped depending portions large enough to receive the chicken leg bones and small enough to keep the hocks of the chicken legs from passing through, thereby providing a temporary holder for a chicken carcass or leg portion suspended upside-down there from. The entire carcass can be suspended from said shackles or some portion of the shackles such as for example the leg quarters, or for example what is sometimes referred to as the saddle portion of the carcass.
In the processing of chickens, turkeys, and other types of birds through a poultry processing plant for defeathering, evisceration, cut-up and packaging, it is desirable to perform as many of the processing steps as possible with automated machinery. It is important to minimize the manual handling of the birds so as to minimize the expense of processing, as well as to ensure uniform processing of the birds. The general method in the poultry processing industry is to suspend birds by their legs from an overhead conveyor system as described above and perform as many of the processing steps as possible as the birds are being moved aligned in series and evenly space apart on the conveyor system from one processing station to the next.
For example, the birds can be decapitated, opened and eviscerated while being progressively advanced along a single overhead conveyor system. However, at certain points in the conveyor system, it may be desirable to transfer the birds from one conveyor line to another. For example, after the birds have been eviscerated, it may be necessary to transfer the birds from the evisceration conveyor line to another processing line, thus necessitating the need to transfer the birds from one conveyor line to another.
In the past, the transfer of birds from one conveyor line to another was manually performed by an operator removing the birds from the shackles and placing the legs of the birds or the entire carcass onto another processing line. More recently, equipment has been developed for automating this transfer process. However, many of these machines are complicated and do not provide a simple and efficient means for transferring the birds. Accordingly, a need exists for an improved apparatus and method for automatically transferring birds from one overhead conveyor system to another processing line.
As discussed above, some operations can be performed on the chicken carcass while it is suspended on the shackle of a shackle conveyor, but certain other processes are performed by machines or by the aid of machines which require that a portion of the carcass, for example the legs and saddle, be conveyed down a separate conveyor. It has been customary to employ hand labor to transfer the chicken carcass portions from a shackle conveyor. The typical machines that have been designed for this purpose do not provide a simple and reliable method to successfully automate this transfer, for example the saddle and legs portion of the chicken carcass, from the shackle conveyor to a separate conveyor or processing line with the carcass accurately located and oriented as required to properly carry out further operations.
There is a need to unload chicken leg quarters from a moving overhead shackle line in such a way as to maintain control of the individual leg quarters in two specific aspects: time and space (“Time” in terms of being able to specifically ascertain the location of the product at a given periodic point in time. “Space” in terms of physically capturing and mechanically restraining them in a particular and specific orientation and location in three dimensional space.). The need is particularly evidenced by the requirement to individually load and orient the chicken leg quarters in the specified packaging container.
Previous efforts include for example: an attempt to maintain desired product control by means of a specific arrangement of guide bars only, with no specific mechanical means of moving the product other than the existing shackle line itself and relying solely upon gravity to move the product in the desired direction; slotted wheels that attempt to rotate in such a manner to align slots in the wheel with the leg hocks; and actuated plates, levers or rods for lifting the hock out of the shackle.
For example, current products and methods employed to unload chicken leg quarters from a moving overhead shackle line include standard fixed guide-rail unloaders designed to lift the hock out of the shackle constraint as it passes by, after which the chicken leg quarter drops by force of gravity into a subsequent delivery mechanism such as a conveyor or a hopper/slide.
Previous efforts suffered from the following shortcomings: inconsistency of basic functionality due to varying bird size, inconsistency of product orientation and location due to lack of specific, intentional mechanized means of locomotion & reliance on the force of gravity, and a tendency for the product to fall free from the guide bar mechanism, again due to variations in bird size. Shortcomings of known art include: lack of controlling functionality (control in terms of physically capturing and mechanically restraining the product in a particular and specific orientation and location in three dimensional space and in terms of ascertaining the location of the product at a given periodic point in time.). A better transfer system is needed.